Broadband pump laser stabilized cascading wavelength conversion for generating red, green and blue laser radiations

Abstract

A laser-wavelength conversion system with a broad temperature acceptance bandwidth is provided. The laser system includes a broad-band pump laser driving one or several cascaded laser wavelength converters, wherein the pump laser spectrum is broader than the spectral acceptance bandwidth of at least one of the laser wavelength converters. The broad pump laser spectrum allows some temperature variation in the laser wavelength converters, resulting in a broad temperature acceptance for the whole laser system. The laser system provides stable multi-color laser radiation for applications such as the red-green-blue laser projection TV.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to the use of a broadband pump laser to perform highly stable cascading laser wavelength conversion to generate red, green and blue laser radiations for color display applications. In particular, different parts of the pump laser spectral energy are used in different laser-wavelength conversion processes, resulting in a broad spectral and temperature acceptance bandwidths for the whole radiation-generation system.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Nonlinear laser wavelength conversion is a powerful technique to generate laser-like coherent radiations at the wavelength range where conventional laser sources are not readily available. In particular, cascading nonlinear laser-wavelength conversion allows the use of a single convenient laser source to generate laser radiations of several desirable wavelengths at the output of the radiation system. This multi-color laser-like radiation, for instance, is useful for laser projection d...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]An objective of the present invention is to employ a broadband pump laser to naturally stabilize the laser output powers of different wavelength components in a laser system adopting cascading nonlinear laser wavelength conversion. The laser system comprises at least one nonlinear laser wavelength converter. The pump laser spectrum is broader than the acceptance bandwidths of individual nonlinear laser wavelength converters. In such a system, different parts of the pump laser spectrum contribute to the acceptance bandwidths of different laser wavelength converters, so that the output instability resulting from energy coupling among the laser wavelength converters is minimized.

Problems solved by technology

However none of them teaches the use of a broadband pump laser spectrum to stabilize the RGB laser outputs.

A narrow band pump can only produce desired laser frequency components at the output of such a system at a certain set of fixed temperatures in the nonlinear laser wavelength converters.

In particular, the energy coupling among different radiation components in a single-laser pumped cascading nonlinear laser wavelength conversion system often shows instability in laser output powers subject to variations of temperatures in the nonlinear optical materials.

The drift of the pump laser wavelength due to, say, thermal effects could also cause instability to the output of the whole laser system.

Images